Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and a student of history, maintained that Bush's apparent serenity on the eve of a world-reordering war is part of his managerial style.
"When he was a younger man and owner of a baseball team [the Texas Rangers], he picked the manager and coaches and then sat in the stands," Gingrich said.
But Gingrich said the hesitation in stating the full extent of Bush's world vision is "confusing" foreign countries. "The most powerful nation in the world must be understandable, not merely formidable," he said. And what Bush needs to convey to the world is how much bigger than Iraq the coming war will be.
"I think history will record that a remarkably strong president happened to be in office at a juncture where weapons of mass destruction and terrorism rewrote all the rules of engagement in international relations," Gingrich said. "It will record that the president moved beyond old institutions and developed a new set of alliances."
Gingrich has been a political contributor to Fox News since 1999.
Dick Morris
Morris: "[T]he key, let us all remember, is to attack Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein before he acquires weapons of mass destruction." In an April 17, 2002, column in The Hill (accessed via Nexis), Morris wrote: "The Arab nations demand U.S. action partially to achieve their own ends vis-a-vis Israel, but also precisely to ensnare the United States before it can move against Iraq. They are masters at the game of sucking you into the desert and running you around with shuttle diplomacy until you drop. All the while, Saddam Hussein's scientists build his bomb. The clock is running. Will the United States act before Iraq completes its deadly work?" He further stated: "[T]he key, let us all remember, is to attack Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein before he acquires weapons of mass destruction. This will likely involve a large mobilization of American might and the deployment of several hundred thousand American troops."
Morris suggested Iraq was "developing an atomic bomb [that] they're going to use against us or Israel." On the July 25, 2002, edition of Fox News' The Big Story (accessed via Nexis), Morris advocated for war in Iraq, suggesting that the United States would find "laboratories for enriching uranium" and stating of Bush, "It's very clear he's made the case" to invade Iraq. From The Big Story:
JOHN GIBSON (host): [Bush] has had the -- a notion has been put forward that he has to take care of other things first. Has to be a Middle East peace, the economy has to get back in shape. Should he say, We'll work on those things, but I've got to go ahead with this other thing?
MORRIS: Yes, he should. And those things are really both for -- both false. The notion that he has to solve a 50-year-old problem in the Middle East before he can stop somebody from developing an atomic bomb they're going to use against us or Israel is ludicrous. It's put there by the moderate Arab countries to try to stop him from ever doing anything.
And I can't think of anything better for the stock market than to get it the heck off the A-section of the newspaper and back in the C-section where it belongs. If there were just negative earnings reports and stuff, the market wouldn't be going this crazy.
It's that -- it's -- it's even pushed the Roman Catholic priest scandal off the front pages.
And the point is, we have only one front page in every newspaper at any given time. And if it's all going to be about Iraq, it's not going to be about the stock market, which will help the market.
GIBSON: Oh, yes, but are you saying that to -- that the president should -- that the president can say, Look, I'm going to start this thing now, I'm going to start this campaign, I'm going to move troops, we're going to get going, and that he, he can set aside the, the grumbling, the mumbling that he is starting a war to save his political problems?
MORRIS: Yes, sure he can, because no Democrat is going to dare say that. If some Democrat gets out there and says, You're starting this war because of the election, he'll kill them. He'll say, I'm starting the war. When this guy used poison gas and when I invade him, I'll find five laboratories for enriching uranium.
Look, if George Bush announced on Labor Day, Hey, I've made a discovery, Uganda is developing weapons of mass destruction and we're going to attack it, OK, that's wagging the dog. But this guy has been talking about Iraq for a year now. Eighty-five percent of the country wants him to invade. It's very clear he's made the case. What he's done so far is procrastinate, for two reasons.
Legitimately, he felt he wanted to do some work in Israel and world opinion. But the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- illegitimately. But legitimately, it was that you don't fight a war in the desert in the summer. It's hot, particularly in those chemical uniforms. You ever been in one of them? It's hot.
